Category Archives: ResponsePaper

Creativity, just like happiness, is a broad term that has been thoroughly studied for many, many years. Even so, the ability to be “creative” in school and allow children to explore their creativity is somewhat controversial. As I mentioned in class, the videos reminded me very much of “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens (as I said, “it’s like my favorite book…like ever!”). “Hard Times” does a great job of bringing to light how the abolishment of creativity in the educational system can lead to a loss of individuality in children. In the book, children were assigned numbers in the classroom and were only supposed to state facts. This is from a scene from an old film based on the book, in which students were supposed to define a horse. In the book, Sissy Jupe has a more creative way of defining a horse, and in the film, they don’t show that but they show that she is unable to define a horse and can only relate it to horseback riding (which is deemed creative):

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Also, if anyone has read “Le Petit Prince” (or “The Little Prince”), they too would be familiar with the idea that as adults, we tend to be less creative and less imaginative. The book points out, that from seeing the image on top (below this), adults would think it’s a hat. But, the image created by the narrator as a child is meant to represent a boa who swallowed an elephant.

But anyways, to answer the question, I don’t feel like I have the ability to be as creative as I would like to be in school. I mean, I remember in high school..I was able to create or write something in my own unique way, but I still had to follow certain rules and keep everything within certain acceptable boundaries. But, there was this Humanities teacher who everyone hated because she used to take creativity to a whole new level. One time, my friend (who had this teacher) told me that she gave out an assignment, and the assignment was to take any quote from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and to visually represent it. You couldn’t create a poster though and your representation couldn’t have words. I remember when the project was due, kids came in with boxes and mazes and costumes and it was just like a crazy, art convention. It was interesting..but it was just hard for some kids that felt they were being forced into thinking creatively for the sake of a grade. Some people just don’t like the idea of expressing their creativity or may feel they don’t have any. I think it’s always fun to step out of the box, especially in education. Sometimes, the classroom environment can become quite monotonous. But then, there is the belief that there is no room for creativity in education. I mean, don’t we live in a society where everyone wants to go to the top? Be part of that 1% of wealthy people? Isn’t that the notion behind the American Dream, to climb up the socioeconomic ladder? In doing so, you have to learn the facts, right? This relates to Alex’s past two posts about how we live in a society that aims to create a nation of workers.

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Now onto ambiguity. I love ambiguity. I love the idea of surprises, not knowing..the thrill of getting to connect ideas and events and trying to fill in the holes. I feel okay not understanding anything from time to time, although like a child, I like to ask “why” a lot. But, sometimes..it’s just awesome to not know things. Like for example, “Inception”, the great film directed and written by Christopher Nolan ends in an ambiguous way that has created a lot of debates and I think that’s awesome and just fills everyone with a thrill for more.

Personally, I don’t think we need to know everything. Actually, I think it is impossible to know everything. I feel like the idea of a mystery applies to a lot of aspects in life. I know that I am attracted to mysterious people because I like to learn about them. I get bored when I know too much about a person, and in doing so, I try to prevent others from knowing every little thing about me. Maybe this connects to my love for crime shows and mystery novels. The idea of “what happens next” or “what are their (a person) intentions” is fun to explore.

From yesterday’s class, i came to the realization that it is okay not to know something.It is alright to be ambiguous. We live in a society obssesed with having the definite and right answers. We have become too critical and logical. We are crazy about memorization , test and numbers. This reminds me of why i was really nervous the hours before i had to take my calculus midterm. We leave no room for creativity, ambiguity and our right brain. Our education system assumes that all students have the same abilities, talents and the same ways of thinking. Our creativity and talents are often destroyed at an early age. We are not allowed to even develop it.

  However, it was quite heartwarming and encouraging to see that in our new age of life, from web 1.0 to 2.0, creativity is being taken into account.We are in dire need of creativity now than any moment in history. The internet has changed how humans live.Today we have become more creative.This is what we all need. Humans were made by their creator in a sense that they were to use their freewill and creativity to improve their life. But obviously that has not been the case. Our system of education will have to change in order for us to be truly creative

At first, creativity to me seemed to be something you had to be born with. Like said in the “Education and the Changing World of Work” video, left of your brain is for logic and right of your brain is for creativity, and I just thought I was a left brain person. Things came easily to me, just as long as they were obvious.  Creativity was something I thought I did not have and could not have because I simply wasn’t capable of manifesting my own intense ideas. Over time I began to realize that I actually was a creative person but I wasn’t allowing myself to go further than just black and white. When it comes to school, I believe that listening to other students’ ideas helps me generate my own and enhances my ability at becoming creative.

Ambiguity is something that to a certain extent drives me nuts! Although I can handle not understanding things from time to time, I feel extremely deprived when things are too vague and unspecific. In my opinion, it all comes down to whether or not I am willing to give something a try and actually use the right side of my brain to come up with interpretations. It definitely isn’t exciting for me to be confused. When being confused there is absolutely no way for me to proceed in doing whatever it might have been that I was doing.

I feel that I’m able to be creative pretty often especially when I’m doodling in class or daydreaming. But then again it’s creativity that only I see most of the time and something I don’t really show to anyone else. Another opportunity I get to be creative is when professors assign papers or projects because it still requires me to use my creativity to imagine and think about what my paper/project will look like or to have an idea for it so I have something to start on.
One thing I noticed about “Education and the Changing World of Work” video is that the speaker keeps talking about how important the “left-brain world” was and how much more the “right brain” matters now and how it is more important that the left. I somewhat disagree on this, I think both brains are equally as important and that there should be no time frame in which one part of the brain is more important than the other; they are part of the same important organ. Daniel Pink says that the right brain abilities now matter more. Sure the right brain lets people think of new an creative ideas that no one has ever though of. To make that idea work one must use the left brain’s logic, analytical skills and facts to make sure it’ll work. For example car concepts, people who designs cars first use there right brain to form concept with their creativity but in the end it’s the left brain that makes sure if this concept will work and will not cause any injuries.
Pink also talks about education, though I don’t really pay attention to education policies. I feel that the education system should give children more opportunities to use their creativity and not stress children out with so many facts. From what I remember only in Pre-K up to 2nd grade I had a lot of opportunities to use my creativity. After it was all math, English and history and exams on these topics, not much creativity use for the three.
Lastly, “living with ambiguity” is something I can endure because I believe in life there is a lot of ambiguity. This does not necessary mean I like it. I feel that it is okay to not know something from time to time. An example of ambiguity that I’m okay with is cliffhangers they always make me want to know more and it bothers me the author just leaves the readers off like that. Even so I feel that with this ambiguity it fuels our creativity and lets us create our own ideas from that situation. I do not find it exciting to be confused because I don’t understand how am I suppose to be excited about something I don’t understand?

I feel like I am able to be creative everyday but what the creativity is applying to is what matters. Creativity to me is not just thinking of things and using my imagination to create something out of the blue but also analyzing a specific situation and using what is presented in front of me to create new thoughts of my own and how I choose to analyze what the next step is. Each of us are creative in our own right every day because we see the world through our own eyes and we have to think about what we are going to do with this input of information. Creativity sometimes just comes out on its own when you have that spark of an idea that just pops into your head like an “ahah!” moment. You may try to be creative by seeing how other people do things and then try to come up with your own approach in figuring out the same answer or solution. Creativity may also just come from a random moment when images start forming in your head and they begin building themselves into a bigger picture. Creativity makes itself apparent throughout every day of your life because it’s that unexpectedness even to yourself that makes something special come alive. You didn’t think that you had it in you but once it’s brought to fruition, you can be proud of the fact that your creativity is unlike any other person’s.

I think sometimes I feel comfortable living in ambiguity because it allows you to interpret the situation in your own terms and how it applies to your own life. You can’t know every detail about every piece of information that is in the world because your brain might turn to mush but this gives you the opportunity to keep exploring and thinking of alternative scenarios which can be creative. I feel that it is okay not to understand something from time to time because that allows me to try to come up with an answer or explanation on my own and also discuss with others what they think about it. This exchange of thoughts and opinions helps all of us gain new perspectives so that even though we may not have thought of that before and may not agree with it, we can understand that there are other arguments in how to interpret the facts presented in front of us. Sometimes it is kind of exciting to be confused because that just gives us greater incentive to figure it out on our own or with the help of others. We have that thirst for education and knowledge because it is embedded within us that we need to know what stuff is about and why it has to be that way. If we understood everything in this vast universe of information, we would all be living boring lives of repeating everything that we know and trying to come up with something new to figure out and discover.

Malisa Basic JM13D

OPTION 2:

This option is an exercise in comparing and contrasting. Select two of the four stories we’ve read thus far (“Cathedral,” “The Birth-mark,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “The Story of an Hour”). Think about what these stories say about “happiness”–do they depict a uniform view of how people experience happiness? Why or why not? How?

You might even want to pick two specific characters to work with. For example, how does Jig’s experience of happiness differ from Georgiana’s?

Two of the short stories that left the greatest affect to me as a reader when referring to the similarities between the main characters of each story were Hills Like White Elephants and The Birthmark. In each story, the relationship between each couple is faced with the struggle of a certain situation that may potentially affect their relationships in a negative manner.  In The Birthmark, the couple is faced with the issue that the scientist’s wife’s facial birthmark has made him concentrate on this ”imperfection” where he believes she would be perfect, if she did not have it.  This causes him to find a method to remove the birthmark, which eventually kills his wife as she agrees and takes the drink given to her by him.  In one way, he did achieve his desired goal, while losing another part of his life- his wife.  In Hills Like White Elephants, the question whether or not the young girl should make the decisions to have an abortion creates apparent tension between her and the man.  However, she decides to go on with the surgery and is reassured by her partner that everything would be fine, and she responds by telling him that she herself is ”fine.”

Some of the similarities I found in each story were quite obvious.  Each story dealt with the dilemmas each couple was facing, and the tension between each couple had affected the decision made towards the end.  In addition, the issues were directed to that of the woman gender in each relationship.  What I mean by this, is that it was basically up to the woman to decide or make a decision in order to create a ”solution” for the problems each relationship was facing.  However, in each story, though one problem may have been resolved, another emerged.  this also raises the idea that relationships can never be perfect.

Though the wife of the scientist did make the decision to have her birthmark removed because of her husbands reaction to it, she died in conclusion.  This shows that she was willing to remove something very much apart of who she was up to the day she decided to remove it, whereas  her husband was not willing to accept it, and wanted to make her ”perfect.”   In the other short story, the young girl decides to go on with the abortion.  However, this resolution does not create an ideal relationship either because she did have doubts about making this decision and her last words were a clear sign of confusion, and uncertainty.  In this story, we were not exposed to what happened to their relationship after word, hence it could lead up to many more issues within the relationship.  Another basic similarity was the concept of death.

In each of these two stories, the idea of death is brought upon in different ways.  In Hills Like White Elephants, this concept lurks because it is based on the topic of abortion while in The Birthmark, we are surprised with the term at the end of the story, not knowing it would occur while reading it at all.  Though death was presented in a different way in each story, the impact of this event causes sorrow in each story.  this is because the term death is associated with negativity, pain, sadness, etc.)

When focusing on the personality of each of these women, they do seem to have their own stand, but seem as if they both give in toward the end.  In The Hills Like White Elephants, I was given to impression that though the girl did give her own stand, she was somewhat persuaded by the man that this was the right thing to do, rather than her believing it was.  In the other short story, the woman does not approv of her husbands criticism and actually cries in defense.  This is not a sign of weakness, however.  For a woman to be able to accept something so blunt from her husband, in my opinion, shows strength.  However, towards the end she does makes this decision in order to please her husband, which is what I also believed the young girl did for her spouse though it was not directly stated.

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway are two short stories that I believe share the significance of change and its relation to happiness. In both stories there is a female character that is put in a serious situation where they must undergo an intense thought process.

Mrs. Mallard is a character that is told her husband has died and she is now forced into thinking about how her life will change. Despite the tragic death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard becomes psyched and ready for the single life. She is no longer under control of her husband and she is free, as well as young. She was being deprived of living a happy life simply because of the existence of her spouse. What this makes me think about is Kate Chopin’s book “The Awakening” which seems like an elongated story similar to her “The Story of an Hour”. I noticed that in both of these stories, the main female character seems to have no other option but to die because in some way or form it was her only chance at being free and happy. I think that’s a tad bit extreme.

Jig is a character that ponders upon the thought of whether or not she should have an abortion. It seems like her options were, have a baby and lose your husband, or kill your baby and live happily with your husband. The only problem I had with this was that her happiness could have come along with either option, something I believe she failed to see.

Both Jig and Mrs. Mallard encounter short moments in their life where they come close to change and it is clear that their willingness to make these changes is driven by their belief of how happy they will be in the outcome. What I believe this is saying every decision we make in life, minor or drastic, has to do with how we want it to affect our happiness. In other words, we do what we do because it makes us “happy”.